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6th Floor Blog

About 6th Floor Blog

6th Floor Blog is written in a conversational style. It focuses on the life and adventures of six roommates living in an apartment together in Manhattan. For our first post and a explanation for the colors, go here.

“It really changes as you get older. When you’re young, you go on and everything is exciting and new but you don’t really get a full sense of just how big it is. You almost expect to run into people you know everywhere. The percentages go up if you are on local sites, but it’s still very unlikely. Yet you still think you’re going to run into classmates or friends in random places on the web.”

Sara pauses for a bite of meatball.

“Then you get a little older. You’ve dabbled in the place a lot. You’ve found blogs, and irc channels, and chat rooms and youtube and digg and all those ‘popular’ sites. You’ve learned that while you aren’t likely to run into random people you know in real life on the web, the people you do run into can become friends easily. You become a little egotistical in that you think you know everything.”

Sara takes a sip of her wine.

“You start to assume that if you haven’t heard about something, it probably didn’t happen. Or that it just isn’t important. You’ve added silly Internet catch phrases like ‘all your base are belong to us’ and ‘fail’ to your vocabulary, yet disdain others like Anime style smilies or l8r; dismissing the latter as AOL speak.”

Sara takes another sip of wine.

Tabitha glances at the empty wine bottle in the kitchen. “How much wine have you had already Sara?”

“I’m not done! Shh.”

“As time goes on and you’re still discovering new things, you start to realize just how vast the world, and the Internet, are. You learn just because a site doesn’t come up on digg or slashdot or your favorite portal site doesn’t mean that it’s not cool, or that it hasn’t been around and successful. You learn how easy it is for a new site or idea to come into being, take off, and suddenly be all the rave. You discover things that you never realized were there and scratch your head thinking ‘How did I not know about this?’ You become a web disciple, fully believing that if there is information to be had, you can find it on the web somewhere. You probably blog recreationally and contribute to Wikipedia by this point.”

Sara takes a sip of wine, and picks up her fork and spoon and begins eating again.

“Stupid weather! Why has it been cold, windy or rainy all week? Where’s spring and summer? Baseball has started. It’s supposed to be warm. I’m tired of jackets!”

“Well April showers bring May flowers!”

“And I care about flowers? Are there natural flowers on this island anyway? It’s all concrete. Everything that grows is planted and watered and cultivated!”

“What do May flowers bring?”

Tabitha and Billy together: “Pilgrims!”

“You guys are dorks.”

“Everything’s so dreary. The economy sucks, I somehow owe money to the government, I haven’t been able to sleep in days and I haven’t had a date in a month!”

“Maybe you should try keeping more normal hours. I can’t imagine it’s easy to meet women at four am.”

“Not the cheap kind anyway, if you know what I mean.” Scott winks.

“Actually, that probably is the cheap ones. I’d imagine the higher priced ones have already found a client by then, not looking for the first drunk guy to stumble out of a bar.”

“I’m not that desperate anyway! Screw them and their diseases! Wake up at the crack of dawn like Sara? Not for me! Maybe I need to take a trip somewhere. Get out of the city, connect with nature.”

“Maybe you just need some fresh air, and some outside stimulation. But let me know if you go somewhere. I worry.”

“Yes, I know you worry. I’ll keep you updated. Maybe I should make a twitter account and update it constantly so you know exactly where I am at all times!”

“Or we could install a GPS tracking device on you.”

“Perfect. I’ll get right on that. Maybe I’ll just get it implanted into my shoulder. Fine, fresh air. I’m going for a walk. We have an umbrella right? Oh, I see it there drying from when Ann came in. I’m borrowing it. Talk to you later.” Frank takes the umbrella and leaves.

As many of you know, or don’t know, Frank went to school in Buffalo. While there he discovered Wegmans. Wegmans rocks, especially when compared to the grocery stores in the NYC area. It’s just the little things, and hard to explain if you haven’t been there. Frank developed an itch to go there, and decided to make the hour plus trip to the closest one in New Jersey.

“I can’t stand it anymore, I want a chicken finger sub, from Wegmans.”

“Isn’t the closest one in like Ocean, or Bridgewater somewhere? We could probably drive it..”

“Drive to Jersey for groceries? Are you nuts?”

“Hey, don’t knock it if you’ve never been there.”

“Guess it’s not the most crazy trip you’ve made at the last minute, but it is rush hour. Going to be fun getting out of the city.”

“I don’t have anything better to do tonight. Do you?”

Tabitha pauses. “Truthfully no. Fine, I’m curious what all the fuss is about, but I’m bringing a book to read in the car..and our grocery list.”

“Shot gun!”

“Coming Billy?”

“I drive back and forth from nowhere to nowhere at work, I don’t need to do it after work too. I’ll stay here. Bring me back some cool cheese or something.”

“Will do. Let’s go. You know how to get there right?”

“GPS. 21st century. Get with the program!”

“Right right, blind trust in technology. You haven’t met many developers have you?”

“I’ll get us there. Come on, I can’t remember if I have gas or not and I want to get out of NYC as fast as possible before the traffic piles up.”

“When was the last time you drove anyway?”

“Probably three weeks ago when we went out to Sue’s in Jersey.”

“Right! And you got gas. It was Jersey, Ann told you you were obligated.”

“I was obligated, you’re right. I guess we’re good. That means I can use the bathroom before we go.”